News

We're delighted to release updates to our Practice Guide, the key document we produced to help our signatories in 2021. The new Practice Guide will be released in ten sections over time, with the first four available now and the others to follow. This first release brings together our updated Practice Roadmap, Regenerative Design guidance, Climate Justice principles and Designing for Performance into a single framework for transforming architectural practice.

AD trustee Mandy Franz - who has led the effort to produce the new documents, with groups of volunteers working on each one - says: "These are working documents that will be updated when adaptation is necessary due to policy change, new findings etc, and we welcome your feedback and input. Similarly, if you want to contribute to any of the sections that are outstanding let us know. We hope that these sections can support our industry to remain climate literate."

The Practice Roadmap provides a structured pathway for practices to align values, commit to action, build capability, communicate progress, and embed climate and biodiversity goals into everyday decision-making. It emphasises leadership, transparent targets, staff engagement and collaboration with clients and consultants.

Regenerative Design calls for a shift from 'less bad' design towards creating net-positive outcomes for people, places and nature. It is founded on three principles: Being a Good Ancestor, Co-evolving with Nature, and Creating a Just Space for People. The guide promotes systems thinking, circular resource use, ecosystem restoration and designing for future generations. This document also replaces our Regenerative Design Primer, released in 2024.

Climate Justice is positioned as a core responsibility of practice, recognising that environmental and social challenges are inseparable. Architects are encouraged to support a just transition, champion fairness, engage communities and ensure that climate action improves quality of life for all.

The final document in this current release of updates, Designing for Performance reinforces evidence-based design, measurable outcomes and post-occupancy learning, ensuring that buildings perform as intended while delivering long-term environmental and social value.

Other documents will follow - including a new document on Connectivity & Transport.

The four updates are available from the new Practice Guide page of our website - which also shows how they fit into the overall Practice Guide structure. The original guide is also available there, with links to the remaining sections, which are still valid until we update them next year (e.g. Chapter 4, Human Factors; Chapter 5, Energy, Whole Life Carbon & Circularity, Chapter 6, Ecology). 

There is a short questionnaire for your feedback on any of the documents - and to say if you would like to help develop the next sections to be updated.

Thanks to all our contributors and reviewers who have worked on updating our Practice Guide.

We've launched our 2026 survey for AD signatories and others across the built environment sector to let us know how you think we're doing, what you'd like to see in AD's future programme, and what you'd like to share about your own work over the past year. This annual stakeholder consultation is an invaluable tool for us to understand our impact and how we can deliver the most to encourage and support our sector's response to the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency.

The survey has 5 short sections and all the questions are optional:

1. Your awareness of AD
2. Your perception of AD's impact
3. Your personal engagement with AD
4. Your experience with our declaration
5. What you would like AD to do in future.

It just takes a few minutes to share your thoughts. And we're interested in diverse responses, so as many people as wish to within your practice can respond personally: please share the survey link! All responses will be anonymised for our analysis and a summary as part of our 2026 Impact Report.

Please do complete the survey ASAP - and by 30th October.

Earlier this year, we welcomed eight Next Gen Ambassadors to the Architects Declare Steering Group, working alongside our trustees. Acting as a vital link between AD and the emerging generation of new architects, they bring fresh perspectives, emerging priorities, and new ideas to our work, while helping share knowledge, opportunities, and learning back with students and early-career professionals. 

Building on the work of our earlier Student Ambassadors, Amy and Anushka, Ayaan, Ayub, Daisy, Eimear, Ola, Riya, Rory and Xan have been working together on research and guidance that we will share towards the end of their year with AD, and on a special event - Designing for 2050: who is responsible? - that will end AD's co-curation with Architecture Today of Regenerative Design 26 throughout October 2026. They have also been engaged in our work on the Regenerative Architecture Index, and on updates to our Regenerative Design Primer and Practice Guide. 

You can read about all eight Next Gen Ambassadors and their ideas in the stories we've been sharing over the past month or so on LinkedIn:

Ayaan Syed

Ayub Abdulkadir

Daisy Shum 

Eimear Kernan 

Olaoluwakitan Olabiyi 

Riya Shah 

Rory Thomas 

Xan Xacobo Goetzee-Barral 

Partnering with others in the Built Environment Declares family of declarations, AD is pleased to share a new collaborative report on the risk of child labour within construction material supply chains.

An estimated 138 million children are engaged in child labour worldwide. Yet, while our sector has made significant progress in addressing the environmental impacts of construction, the social impacts embedded within global supply chains are much less visible. Regenerative practice must consider the full social and environmental consequences of how we design, specify and procure - not just what happens once a building is complete.

Developed with HACE, a specialist organisation dedicated to eradicating child labour, Impacts of Child Labour in Construction Materials: Guidance for Built Environment Professionals combines industry collaboration with expert insight to support practical, child-centred action across supply chains:

• The differences between the UK Modern Slavery Act and child labour
• The construction materials and supply chains where risks are greatest
• Where existing due diligence approaches can fall short
• Practical recommendations for clients, designers and supply-chain organisations to embed child-labour due diligence into procurement and contracts.

We have invited all four candidates in the recently announced election to become President of the RIBA to speak at a special hustings event on 2nd June. We are delighted that all four have agreed to join us at the offices of AHMM in London to debate the relationship of architecture as a profession and discipline to the climate and biodiversity emergency. The event will also be available online.

AD and ACAN! will ask each candidate to include their response to this statement in their opening remarks at the debate:

"We believe that the President of the RIBA must intervene to maximise architects’ agency for positive change on the Climate and Biodiversity Emergency, and demonstrate where government, institutions and industry can lead on systems change towards fully regenerative solutions. All candidates are invited to set out how their presidency would address UK Architects Declare’s principles and ACAN!’s overarching aims."

The four candidates are:

• Duncan Baker-Brown
• Chithra Marsh
• Jay Morton
• Austin Williams

You can find their election statements at RIBA's nominations page - which also presents their short election videos.

Don’t miss your chance to enter! Submit your entry by 18th May.

Launched by Architecture Today and UK Architects Declare, and in partnership with Schüco, the Regenerative Architecture Index (RAI) benchmarks progress in the move towards regenerative practice and projects as we move away from degenerative forms of practice.

Organised around the core themes we established for the first RAI in 2024 and again in 2025, the Index helps architects and others designing our built environment to inspire action and celebrate success, show how participants are tackling obstacles, raise awareness across the profession and the wider industry and support a paradigm shift towards regenerative practice across the sector:

• Being a good ancestor - a shift in mindsets to consider truly long-term thinking. Our decisions today should consider seven generations ahead, ensuring adaptability and flexibility for the future. 
• Co-evolving with nature - recognising that we are part of nature, within integral living systems, not separate from it. Our work should actively regenerate ecosystems by learning from and working with natural systems. 
• Creating a just space for people - providing social connection, economic opportunity and wellbeing for all. Our design processes should foster a shared sense of stewardship where neighbourhoods can self-organise and build their resilience. 

And UK Architects Declare is excited to be working with Architecture Today to develop a special programme of events in October that will include the publication of this year's RAI results. Regenerative Design 2026 is a great opportunity for participants in the 2026 RAI to showcase their work during this month-long exhibition and learning programme at the Building Centre in central London. The programme will include:

• Opening party with the RAI 2026 Results
• A free walk-in exhbition for all built environment professionals and the general public, listing all RAI member organisations along with a curated selection of relevant case studies
• Evening events and talks
• Seminars and round table events.

See Architecture Today for initial information on Regenerative Design 2026.

Today, alongside businesses, professional bodies and organisations from across the UK economy, UK Architects Declare has signed an open letter to Defra Secretary of State Emma Reynolds urging the Government to publish the long-promised Circular Economy Growth Plan without further delay. The open letter was co-ordinated by Green Alliance and signed by more than 50 organisations.

A circular economy is not a future aspiration for the built environment — it is already essential to how we design, retrofit, reuse and build more responsibly. Clear policy direction now would help unlock investment, accelerate material reuse, support green jobs and strengthen resilience across the construction sector and beyond.

At a time of rising environmental and economic pressure, delaying action risks slowing momentum at precisely the moment it needs to accelerate.

We support an ambitious, practical and deliverable strategy that enables long-term thinking across industry, government and communities alike, and are developing AD's policy work following on from our hugely sucessful takeover of the London Eye and gathering at Sustainable Ventures last October for A Circular Revolution.

We were really excited to get such a positive response to our recent call out for Next-Gen Ambassador applications. Such a response in fact, that we are appointing no less than EIGHT ambassadors to form a team of volunteers alongside our Steering Group.

We welcome:

• Ayaan Syed
• Ayub Abdulkadir
• Daisy Shum
• Eimear Kernan
• Olaoluwakitan Olabiyi
• Riya Shah
• Rory Thomas
• Xan Xacobo Goetzee-Barral

Building on our initial Student Ambassador scheme - brilliantly delivered by Amy Thompson and Anushka Gupta - our Next-Gen Ambassadors will:

• Develop our thinking on topics relevant to their studies or current work and future career;
• Help us build the capacity of new and future architects through our programme;
• Generate new insights and knowledge at the forefront of regenerative design and other priorities for our sector.

AD Steering Group member Alasdair Ben Dixon says: “We’ve always known that sharing knowledge across our industry is essential to increasing collective action, and reducing our negative impacts. New voices are essential to that, as they ensure we’re addressing the right issues, and supporting the latest ideas. That’s why we’re excited to be appointing these 8 talented individuals to build on the success of last year’s excellent ambassadors.

"Want to arrange a meeting with our new ambassadors or discuss your practice's journey? Don't hesitate to get in touch!”

Fellow AD Steering Group member Laura Baron, who - along with Alasdair - will act as initial point of support for the new volunteers, says: “We’re thrilled to welcome our new Next-Gen Ambassadors to the Architects Declare family. By bringing together these energetic and engaged individuals, we aim to platform fresh thinking, diverse voices, and future-focused leadership. We strongly believe that empowering the next generation to help shape decisions today will accelerate innovation, challenge outdated practices, and support the creation of places designed for the world that’s coming, not the one we’re leaving behind.”

Watch this space for updates on their progress!

We also thank everyone else who applied for this new role with AD: it was a strong field of candidates, demonstrating the commitment to the principles UK Architects Declare are building on in our programme and partnerships.

We are pleased to share our latest Impact Report, covering our work for 2025.  Our 2025 Impact Report:

• highlights AD's workstreams across the year: Advocacy, Engagement, Guidance, Education, and Paradigm Shift;
• gives an overview of our actions at a glance and how we worked to share our messages;
• shares insights into what signatories and others told us in our first annual survey;
• offers some of impact stories they shared with us.

The short document also looks ahead to our priroties for 2026 and thanks signatories and supporters for their contributions to our work, whether through their expertise and ideas, their voice or their financial support.

Let’s not make the floor the ceiling! The draft NPPF consultation (National Planning Policy Framework) proposes changes that would rewind progress, stifle innovation, and reduce our ability to meet national carbon targets.

The consultation closes on 10th March. We urge AD signatories in England to respond and make clear that national policy must enable and not restrict climate leadership, innovation, and the ability of local authorities to go further where viable.

While there are aspects of these broad-ranging changes that are positive, we want to draw your urgent attention to section PM13 'Setting Standards'.* If adopted this would prevent England's local authorities from setting higher standards (EUI, renewable energy, and related measures). A reliance on Building Regulations, the ‘floor’, is simply the wrong mechanism to use.

Across the UK, local authorities have led the way in raising standards - driving down operational carbon, accelerating industry capability, supporting biodiversity, and providing the market the certainty needed to innovate. This progress has not happened by accident; it has been enabled by local leadership. Countless authorities have been raising the bar and, in doing so, galvanising our industry while reducing carbon and enhancing biodiversity.

At a time when the UK’s net-zero economy is growing three times faster than the overall economy, this is not the moment to retreat. It is not the moment to constrain ambition. And it is certainly not the moment to lock in mediocrity. Why put on the brakes?

* See page 24 of the document, and question 18 in the consultation.

Please get involved!

We support our friends at LETI who are rising to the challenge and ensuring we can respond to this consultation with ease. They have also organised a 45-minut webinar: 'Join LETI’s Call to Action on the NPPF Consultation' on Wednesday 25th February at 1pm. You can register here.

They have also created a template to help us respond to the consultation concentrating on PM13: Consultations | LETI

Do contact us if you would like more information or indeed would like to discuss any of this further.